Harley and Sandra

SUMMARY

This article describes an initial therapy session with a white, heterosexual married couple in their late thirties. The therapeutic approach illustrated attempts to help men and women use relationships with each other as a resource for mutual healing, for deepening knowledge of self and others, and for cultivating a greater capacity for compassion, intimacy and effective interaction. Conflicts that arise in the context of relationship are viewed as opportunities for the above, and the impact of gender conditioning on both women and men is considered a key force to reckon with. Paradigm shifts inspired by contemporary feminist scholars and therapists are here applied as a foundation for better understanding the impact of oppression on women and men and dynamics between them.